Amputees generally do not wish to draw attention to their prostheses. Accordingly, a good prosthesis should be as realistic looking and cosmetically appropriate as possible. While cosmetically appointed prostheses are commercially available, they typically exhibit limited realism. For example, one known prosthetic covering is a basic, monochromatic glove with indentations to resemble knuckles and nails. The glove comes in a limited selection of sizes (e.g., five sizes for adults and children) and colors (e.g., sixteen colors for each size). Unfortunately, it is not always possible to achieve a good color match between the cosmetic glove and the amputees' corresponding existing hand. Moreover, the glove is monochromatic and thus lacks a realistic depth of color. Finally, the glove often does not match the person's skin complexion (freckles, variations in skin tone, etc.)
One way to overcome these limitations has been to painstakingly paint detailed features onto a customized prosthetic or prosthetic cover (e.g., fingernails, toenails, skin creases, knuckle lines, hair, and base skin color). However, such customized prostheses are very costly due to the high artistic skill and substantial labor needed to make them. For example, an aesthetically enhanced hand cover marketed under the name LIVINGSKIN is available from Aesthetic Concerns of Middletown, N.Y. The material for the LIVINGSKIN cover is made up of three different layers, simulating the three layers of skin: epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous layers. Professional artists paint each individual cover to closely match the original limb, typically using photographs of the person's existing limb as a reference for color and detail. Although a prosthetic having such a cover can have a lifelike appearance, the required skill and labor to create the cover make hand-painted prostheses or prosthesis covers too expensive for the average amputee. The costs will become all the more problematic when it becomes necessary to replace covers that become irreversibly soiled or damaged.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a need for improved aesthetically accurate covers for prostheses and orthoses that can be made by a cost-effective method and duplicated without excessive additional expense. There is also a need for improved, economical covers for prosthetic and orthotic devices and other dynamic or flexible supporting devices replicating the appearance of corresponding body parts or corresponding articles both at rest and dynamically. Finally, there is a need for a light chamber that makes it possible to produce photographic images of body parts with a degree of accuracy, realism and reproducibility sufficient to satisfy medical requirements, including the exacting requirements for making the covers of this invention.